


Cold In Your Arms

by silveronthetree



Category: Captain America (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Cuddling and Snuggling, F/M, Roboarm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-23
Updated: 2012-01-23
Packaged: 2017-10-30 00:29:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/325783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveronthetree/pseuds/silveronthetree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Improvements aren't always for the best. Roboarm cuddling ficlet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold In Your Arms

**Author's Note:**

> For the [cuddling meme](http://angelgazing.dreamwidth.org/281441.html). Originally posted [here](http://angelgazing.dreamwidth.org/281441.html?thread=2334305#cmt2334305). Thanks to musesfool for looking it over.

There is nothing to see but the glow of a streetlamp casting shadows on an empty street, but Natasha can't tear herself away from the window. Every cell of her body is exhausted and she knows she should sleep but she leans her shoulder against the cold window pane, letting the chill travel through her arm. It's a stark contrast to the rest of the apartment, full of heat pumped out by the radiator.

A change in the movement of the air against her skin alerts her to his presence. James is silent on bare feet and his entrance would be undetectable to anyone without her level of training and hard-won experience. She can sense him moving closer but it's still a jolt when his warm left hand makes contact with her shoulder – the light touch a familiar but unnecessary warning of his presence -- before she's enfolded in his arms. She leans back into him and closes her eyes. He smells of the utilitarian soap that he won't give up and the faintest hint of gunpowder and beer.

"Hard day?" he asks, his breath ruffling her hair.

"No more than usual." She turns her head to kiss his cheek. His chest is warm through the thin silk of her camisole and he's holding her tight, squeezing her arms against her sides. She could escape at any moment but she doesn't want to. They stand like that in silence until James presses a kiss to her hair and Natasha starts to stroke the warm synthetic flesh of his forearm. "I miss it sometimes."

"Hmm?"

"The metal." She feels him flinch, almost imperceptibly. "I know, I know," she soothes and turns to face him. She remembers all her jokes about his cold hands. Just jokes, but enough of them that Fury commented on it when he gave James his newest arm. "But sometimes when you hold me now, I'm so warm that I forget it's you." He tenses against her until her next words. "And until I remember, I ache for my darling boy."

"It's still me." James reassures her and his arms tighten around her and it is almost too much. Then he grins. "You should've said something earlier; it's easily fixed." He lets go of her with his right arm and reaches across to fiddle with something on his shoulder. It feels as if all the life has gone out of his arm as the warmth recedes from his fingers. Oh!

"It isn't quite the same but I think it'll do the trick." James slides his hand up her arm and pulls her back into his arms. She can feel the cool metal on one side of her body and the warmth of real flesh on the other and she tilts up her face to kiss him.


End file.
